“I said no. Good night!” she said as she yanked open his bedroom door.
“Don’t forget my breakfast tomorrow, Miss Divine,” he called back just as the door slammed shut behind her.
Patrick stared at the closed door and cursed.
What the hell was her problem, and why was she so pissed after a mind-boggling, toe-curling, totally incredible orgasm? He’d shuddered for almost a full minute. It just had to be a record.
Yes, he’d told himself repeatedly that sleeping with Lucy Divine was not one of his brightest ideas, but he’d figured after plenty of sleepless nights that indulging in a little sex with her would be the only possible way to get her out of his system. Out of his freaking mind.
True, he’d first thought it would be better to have sex with Miranda MacFadden. Lord knows she’d been very willing. He just figured he could close his eyes and pretend she was his very sexy bombshell assistant. And yet, the MacFadden woman didn’t inspire so much as a quiver in him, and he’d been damned glad to send her off the other night when he’d realized that to get his friend down under to respond to her, he was going to need either a tow truck or Viagra.
Now Miss Divine…all she had to do was look at him and wham, just like that he was hard for her. It was only natural that with these sorts of reactions toward her, Holden sure as hell hadn’t planned to spend his whole life wondering what she’d be like. What she kissed like. Tasted like. Moaned like. And God, she was perfect. There was no way in hell he was going to stay away from her now.
The more he thought about it, the more he realized there was nothing wrong with getting seriously involved with his assistant. On the contrary, it felt too damned right. So damned right, in fact, that it was downright scary, but if Holden had anything going for him, it was courage. Determination. After a bit of initial confusion, he now knew exactly what he wanted—crystal clear. And as a man accustomed to taking charge of a situation, he would gladly take on any obstacle, any barrier, any challenge, as long as he got that precious little body and that sassy little mouth as his prize.
At this time, the only apparent obstacle seemed to be her anger. Where did that come from? Miss Divine was nothing if not practical and levelheaded. Why on Earth did he let her leave? He should have hauled her butt back into bed and made love to her again—forcefully if he must.
She’d better not be angry tomorrow, because he didn’t want to waste any precious time fighting. Not when they could be rolling around naked, kissing, touching. Fucking. Maybe he needed to get her something, a gift, something to make her happy, something to get rid of that anger. Women loved that sort of shit and Patrick was sure his mother would know about these things, so maybe he should ask her to choose something for Lucy tomorrow. It would give his mother something to do because Holden already had plans for the delectable Miss Divine tomorrow, and they sure didn’t involve his mother.
Yes, a gift was just the thing to bring a smile to Lucy’s delectable, sensual little mouth. Just the thing to make her dote on him.
It wasn’t fair that he should be the only poor tortured soul in this relationship, already drooling all over her while she walked out on him—with no apparent remorse whatsoever and no concern for anything but her job.
A little trinket would take care of this problem for sure.
Four
“Good morning,” Lucy said cheerily to the three secretaries the next day. Zero out of three answered but then Lucy hadn’t expected them to, so she merely knocked on the elaborate wooden double doors and waited for Holden’s command to enter.
From the outward cool she projected, she knew Holden would never guess she was so excited by the mere prospect of seeing him. When she stepped into his office, dressed in a black knee-length skirt and matching jacket, his box of donuts in hand, she briskly closed the door behind her and tried to act professional and stick to her off-business-hours-only plan.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he said from behind his desk.
Lucy felt the heat creep to her cheeks but she prayed he wouldn’t notice as she crossed the room toward his desk.
Without taking his eyes off her, Holden pressed an intercom button on his phone and spoke into the receiver. “Hold my calls, Rhonda.”
Not waiting for Bitch Number Two to respond, Holden leaned back on his swivel chair, crossed his arms behind his head and for the first time ever, Lucy noticed he was smiling. It was a pure, wide, beautiful smile that shone all the way up to his eyes. “Actually, that’s not the breakfast I had in mind,” he said when his eyes landed on the white cardboard box she’d just placed atop his desk.
She stared at him, dumbfounded. “You never mentioned wanting anything else,” she said, disconcerted.
He eyed her seriously. “How about…you. On my desk. For breakfast.”
Although a pool of wetness immediately flooded her panties, Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. “I thought I said I didn’t want this interfering with my job.”
He rolled his eyes. “Ah yes, God forbid I interfere with an errand.”
Standing, he walked toward her with slow, sure footsteps that thumped threateningly on the wooden floor.
“Holden, no.”
He took her shoulders in his hands and squeezed gently, his eyes boring into hers. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m the boss here—not you.”
“But…you can’t order me around. This is personal.”
“Fine. I’ll ask nicely. Will you please lie naked on my desk so I can screw you?”
“No.”